Missing [ST]

Eleven

A/N
Ayo, it's been a while.

Had a fairly shocking couple of weeks but don't worry I'm still here, I'm still writing just haven't been so good at the editing and updating. But hey, here's a new chapter to start the weekend and I am so excited for you to read the upcoming ones too. I know the plot is slow but I really am a sucker for slow-burns and character development. 🥰🥰🥰

Love you all and I hope you're all well and safe wherever you may be. Xx

<>

It was Jake, Leah's younger brother who she was in the car with.

She was there, passenger side, seeing everything through her own eyes. She was wearing the same clothes, much less worse for wear, and Jake had on a pair of dark washed jeans, a long sleeve, unbuttoned shirt combo both rolled to his elbows, and an expensive pair of aviator sunglasses on the bridge of his nose.

The memory was silent, but something was definitely blasting through the stereo. Something good by the swift movement of her thumb and forefinger to turn the volume up.

Jake was turning his head to glance at her, talking with a stupid grin on his face, and Leah knew behind those sunglasses his brown eyes would be crinkling at the corners.

It went on like that, Jake looking over every so often to say something, and Leah began gesticulating like she was explaining her point, but she knew she was laughing as she did so. Whatever it was, couldn't have been that serious.

Outside scenery bleakening, the memory soon faded away.

<>

Eighth of March

Day three of Leah's captivity started no differently to the other two; her head hurt like crap.

The pain made opening her eyes to adjust to the daylight without her vision clouding up with little black dots, an impossible task. It was also scary how long they took to fizzle out and for the dull throb to become a manageable background feature. This time though, the stress from remembering snippets in her sleep may have exacerbated her grogginess. Nothing apparent with her injury, but she was confident she had been with her brother, Jake, and that had to be something.

Then, yesterday came flooding back.

All five of the Americans had been out the whole day, leaving Leah none the wiser and with blunt and broken fingernails to evidence her struggles. She thought about breaking down in tears and crying until there were no tears left to cry, but it would only prolong the overwhelming feeling of despair. So, with willpower she didn't even know she had, the tears were stifled away.

A chilly draft made its way through the poorly sealed window, but it was something she didn't fancy breaking with her bare hands to risk a further injury from glass shards. She couldn't even open the window- the surrounding wood had rotted away, a danger for splinters if she wasn't careful, and a rusted lock prevented the pushing mechanism that she hadn't managed to locate a tiny key for.

Leah had never spent this much time in her own head with only her thoughts as company like this before. Over and over, trying to remember a clear sequence, or a simple chain of events, she just couldn't. There was never enough avail, never a bright enough light to show her the way, and never more than a glimmer of hope at a time, but it couldn't be like this forever.

An opportunity had to present itself, and when it did, she would throw everything she had at it.

<>